Stephen Colbert is a big-time fan of all things Lord of the Rings (he has a chocolate portrait of Viggo Mortensen’s Aragorn on his Colbert Report shelf), and he’ll live out every fan boy’s dream and be in the same movie as THE Mikael Persbrandt. Jealous? Oh yeah, and the movie’s called The Hobbit. Eh. Never heard of it.

No word on which role he’ll play in the franchise and whether it will be a key character or just part of the background…Colbert’s cameo will not come in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which hits theaters Nov. 14, the first of Jackson and Warner Bros’ $1 billion series. The film stars Martin Freeman, Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Hugo Weaving, Orlando Bloom, Benedict Cumberbatch and Andy Serkis. The second film, Desolation of Smaug, arrives Dec. 13, 2013, while the third, There and Back Again [Ed. note: SPOILER?!?], will be released July 18, 2014. (Via)

It still sucks and is a total…whatever the word for “f*ck you” in Elvish is…to fans by making them pay for three separate movies, but the casting of Colbert, even if for a single scene, makes things slightly better. Only time will tell, however, if “I liked Bilbo when he was on The Office” or “I liked [Colbert’s character] when he was Exit 57” will be the new, “I read The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son before it was cool.”

And I mean, even if you don’t think his show’s funny (which it is!), it’s still pretty impressive from a purely intellectual standpoint. Staying one step ahead of people you’re interviewing in general isn’t easy, doing so in a dumbassed character is another thing entirely.

I may be a conservative Republican but that has nothing to do with it. I can laugh my ass off at any episode of The Daily Show. Even the ones where he tears Republicans to shreds. I have seen entire episodes of The Colbert Report where I have not laughed once. The man is just not funny.